Peace and Security
Anti-Government ‘Patriot’ Groups Ramp Up Again
It's déjà vu all over again. Twenty years ago, the passage of the Brady gun control bill helped ignite the first wave of the "Patriot" movement, a combustible mix of gun-toting militias and baseless conspiracy theories about government perfidy that culminated in the...
Getting Small Arms Out of the Wrong Hands
Did you know that international laws dictate the rules of the game when it comes to selling bananas and iPods, but not grenade launchers and AK-47s? It's crazy but true. Fortunately, a solution is at hand. Negotiators at the United Nations will soon wrap up a global...
Close the Gun Show Loophole
Dozens of Americans will be murdered, hundreds of others will be shot, and nearly 1,000 will be robbed or assaulted with a gun — today. The United States has some of the weakest gun laws in the world. To make us, our families, and our communities safer, we need to...
NRA Lesson Plan
We’ve Got to Get Out of That Place
The U.S. war in Afghanistan is beginning to wind down. As President Barack Obama promised in his State of the Union address, half of the U.S. troops there will return home by this time next year. But many details remain hazy. For instance, what will happen with the...
Declaring Victory in Afghanistan
Why Use a Bludgeon When a Calculator Will Do?
Sequestration is both ugly and hard to explain. As a budget wonk, I like to use this metaphor: It's as if the American people are being squeezed into the back of a dilapidated Chevy pickup. Careening down a dirt road, we're headed for a brick wall. Try as we might to...
New World Disorder
They were droning on about drones the other day in Washington. The Senate Intelligence (ha-ha) Committee was grilling CIA chief-designate John Brennan on the use of unmanned aircraft during his tenure as President Barack Obama's adviser on terrorism. Drones are being...
Mission Essential
It's getting easier to find people inside Washington's Beltway who want to cut the fat from the Pentagon budget. Scaling back military spending isn't just for the most progressive members of Congress anymore. Even the tea-partying Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) favors defense...
What about Gun Control Abroad?
A 14-year-old Honduran, Hasked Brooks Wood, perished when police in the town of Ahúas opened fire on him and other civilians riding in a boat down a winding river. This incident, in May 2012, didn't garner much U.S. media coverage. But it should have — because the...
